ABC7 was on the scene as 9-year-old Michael Campbell was whisked away in his father's car.
"He said he didn't come home last night when he went by his friend's house because there was gunfire and he asked the kid's mother can he stay and they told him he could stay," said Chris Campbell, the boy's father. "He fell asleep after they played video games."
VIDEO: Father reunited with missing boy
Missing boy, 9, reunited with family
Police put out a picture of the boy along with a missing person's alert after he didn't come home from Harvard Elementary School in the Englewood neighborhood, which is only a block away from his home. While family members feared the worst, others had hope he would be found safe.
"I knew everything was going to be okay," said Allison Campbell, the boy's aunt. "I prayed and prayed before I got in my car last night, I prayed."
Overnight and into the morning hours, police searched alleyways and knocked on doors, passing out the boy's picture at the school Wednesday morning as children and parents arrived.
Michael's family looked for him in dumpsters and abandoned homes and also hunting for information which led family to 73rd Street and Vincennes Avenue, where they spotted the boy who told his father he was walking home.
"All this was about kids," Chris Campbell said. "No adults gave us any tips. This was children under 12 years old that told us everything."
Michael was taken to a local hospital to be checked out by doctors. That is routine.
Meanwhile, the Chicago Police Department is still investigating the circumstances surrounding this case.